When the Dark Knight visited my neighborhood

Henry Hanks

6 years ago

After the massive box office success of “The Dark Knight,” the buzz surrounding the final film in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy, “The Dark Knight Rises” continues to grow.

Bat-fans like Kevin Smith (who recently shared his conspiracy theory about the film) are especially excited about it. One such fan is Gabe Waxman, who was lucky enough to have the movie shooting practically at his front door.

“I was aware they'd be filming a few weeks ahead of time, but I never imagined seeing as much as I did,” he told CNN Geek Out, about the shoot taking place next to his Manhattan office. “Not only did I luck out by having a window facing wall, I also have a balcony which I can go out and see the entirety of Wall Street.”

Waxman shot footage of several exciting fight and stunt scenes from his window, and uploaded the videos and photos to CNN iReport.

“As a photographer and filmmaker myself, I wasn't going to let all of this excitement take place in front of me without sharing it to the world.”

Naturally, his fellow comic book geeks on sites like Ain’t It Cool News and Movieweb have been dying to find out as many details as they can. “Wall Street was transformed into Gotham City,” he said. “They built a fake stock exchange next to the real one and replaced all the signs with Gotham specific ads and announcements.”

Waxman said the crew for the movie, due in theaters on July 20, 2012, have been shooting since the last weekend of October.

“The 3 Tumblers [the vehicle used for the Batmobile in the previous two films] that were on set at all times were Bane's and camouflaged,” Waxman noted. His speculation as to the meaning of this? “Maybe Bane steals [Lucius] Fox's designs in the beginning. I never saw on set, nor have I in any other photo/video a black Batmoblie Tumbler.”

We’ll see if Waxman’s guess is correct, but either way, he certainly won’t forget the experience: “It's one thing to see the [Tumblers] in the movie, but watching them roar in person was incredible.”